Cleaners say WeWork threatened to fire them for unionizing

WeWork
Cleaners working at WeWork's New York locations say the co-working space startup threatened to fire them if they unionized, BuzzFeed reports.

A branch of the Service Employees International Union, representing more than 100 of WeWork's contracted janitors, filed a charge to the National Labor Relations Board Thursday.

Earlier this week, WeWork's janitors organized and protested outside of WeWork's New York headquarters. They want to make as much as their unionized colleagues do.

WeWork's cleaners come from a non-union contractor and make about $11 an hour. Unionized janitors can make $23 an hour in addition to receiving benefits, the local SEIU chapter told BuzzFeed.

WeWork is a four-year-old startup that divides up big, rented office spaces, subletting them to startups and other businesses. Right now, the company has 15 office spaces in New York City. WeWork also has office spaces in cities like San Francisco and Washington DC.

Valued at $5 billion with $568.9 million in funding from T. Rowe Price, Benchmark Capital, and Wellington Management, WeWork is among the most valuable private tech companies in the world.

WeWork isn't the only startup coming into conflict with contracted laborers. Earlier this week, the California Labor Commission ruled that an Uber driver who brought a lawsuit against the company was an employee, not an independent contractor.

A WeWork company spokesperson provided us with the following statement: "This story is wrong. 1. We do not employ any cleaners at our various locations in New York. These individuals are all employees of our cleaning services contractor. 2. We absolutely did not and would not threaten the employment of any one who works at one of our locations because of any union activity. Moreover, since all of these individuals are employees of our contractor, we do not even have the right to terminate their employment. 3. We have not received any charge from the NLRB."